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The number-one secret for happy knees? Stay at a healthy weight. Every extra pound you pack on puts about 4 extra pounds of pressure on your knees when you walk or take the stairs.

"Women often come in complaining of knee pain, and it turns out it started after they put on just 5 or 10 pounds," said Dr. Sara Edwards, an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Once you shed that excess weight, though, symptoms improveóand sometimes even disappear.

Read on for more great knee-saving tips.

Don't bound up and down stairs

Unless you're in great shape, his puts serious stress on your kneecaps: "If you weigh 150 pounds, that can mean as much as 600 pounds going through your knees," said Robert Gotlin, DO, director of orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. Walk, and hold onto the railing for added support.

The other tip is to keep the leg muscles strong, which lessens pressure on the joints.

May sound strange, but that never occurred to me. Not to fear; this year I will walk 700 miles (got 310 knocked out so far), and I bought a set of 2 pound ankle weights to help me warm up. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get through life with my original equipment knees.

On the "bounding" subject: The tragedy of it all is, the bounding part is the only part Obama has proven to be really good at. He can bound up to the microphone and jog down the steps of Air Force One like a motivational speaker!